Historical Note

OIC Seattle (often refered to locally as "SOIC") was incorporated in
May 1966 as a private, nonprofit community-based vocational training center. It
was founded as an outgrowth of the OIC movement which had been started two
years earlier in Philadelphia. In 1972, OIC Seattle became the first
community-based organization to receive federal designation as a Skills Center.
Its rapid growth and expanding programs made possible the building of a
multi-million dollar training center dedicated in 1974. OIC Seattle's
diversified funding and its accreditation saved the school from the financial
collapse experienced at the beginning of the 1980s by many similar
institutions, but it could not survive the federal government's rapid and
drastic cutback of funding around 1983 and 1984. It attempted to continue its
services by totally reorganizing its service delivery system. Efforts continued
another two years but on September 25, 1986, a Chapter 11 bankruptcy notice was
filed.

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